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Midtown

Straight down Virginia Street from downtown — about a mile south.

The independent restaurant, bar and shop district that replaced the buffet era. Low-rise, muralled, and the most-recommended part of Reno by people who live here.

Midtown is the answer to 'where do locals go'. It runs along South Virginia Street below downtown, and over the last fifteen years it has become the city's independent food and drink district — restaurants, breweries, cocktail bars, vintage shops and a lot of murals.

It is low-rise and strip-like rather than a plaza or a square, which surprises people expecting a pedestrian quarter. The walking is along a busy arterial road, and it is spread over a mile or so rather than concentrated on one block.

From downtown it is about a twenty-five minute walk down Virginia Street, or a very short rideshare. Plenty of people do walk it; it is not scenic, but it is direct and flat.

Good for

  • Eating and drinking well
  • Independent shops and vintage
  • Murals and street art
  • Getting away from the casino floors

Getting around

Walkable within itself, spread along about a mile of South Virginia Street. Twenty-five minutes on foot from downtown, and the walk is functional rather than pleasant.

Should you stay here?

Mostly, do not — there is very little lodging here, and that is the honest answer. Midtown is somewhere you go for an evening from a downtown base, twenty-five minutes on foot or five in a rideshare. Come for dinner and stay out; sleep somewhere else.

What it costs you

  • Almost no hotel stock. This is a restaurant and bar district, not a lodging one.
  • It is a strip along a busy arterial road rather than a pedestrian quarter. The walking is functional, not pleasant, and it is spread over about a mile.
  • Quiet by day. Turning up at 11am and concluding there is nothing here is a common and understandable mistake.

Do you need a car?

Do not drive here to drink, and do not expect to park easily on a weekend evening. From downtown it is a short rideshare; the walk down Virginia Street is flat and direct if you would rather.

When it is at its best

An evening district, and firmly so. It comes alive from about 5pm and is at its best on a Thursday to Saturday night. Weekday afternoons are quiet enough to look closed.

Venues here

What’s on here

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